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Booking a group flight to Italy

Mark A Crook, Cheshire, writes I have been charged with the task of booking 10 flights from Manchester to Pisa or Florence in early May 2014. At what date do the airlines release these flight details and take bookings? We plan to travel to San Gimignano and the nearest airport is Florence, but I suspect there are fewer flights there from Manchester than to to Pisa. I also suspect car hire will be more convenient than rail and taxi travel.

Nick Trend, consumer expert, replies There are no direct flights to Florence from northern airports, but there is not much difference in the journey time to San Gimignano from Pisa (just over an hour) or Florence (just under an hour). Jet2 is the only scheduled or charter service currently operating from Manchester to Pisa. It says bookings for May 2014 will open at the end of May 2013. If you need tickets for 10 or more people, go to jet2.com/groups, where you can make a deposit-based booking, reserve group seating, and make changes to passenger names up to two weeks before departure.

An alternative is to fly with Ryanair (ryanair.com) from Liverpool. It normally opens bookings about a year in advance (currently flights are available to book until March 2014) and you can book for up to 25 people through the website.

I think you are right that it will be easier and more flexible to hire a couple of cars than organise transfers – though it does depend on how long you are going for and what you want to do when you get there.

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About Nick Trend

Nick Trend trained at the Consumers’ Association and has been an editor and writer for the Telegraph Travel section since 1995. Our consumer editor offers insider tips to make planning a trip easier – and suggests innovative ways of making more out of your holidays. Email him at nick.trend@telegraph.co.uk or follow him on Twitter: @travellingtrend